


Press Conference

by Servena



Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, OT3, Press Conference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-08-24 11:51:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8371261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: “How is your marriage going?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sommerchallenge 2016.

**Press Conference**

 

The reporter in the first row adjusts the glasses on his nose. His right hand is tapping the pencil on the pad of paper in front of him. It's unnerving.

“Can I ask you a question, Mr. Lauda?” he asks. James almost rolls his eyes. It's a fucking press conference, what else would they be here for?

But then he takes note of the smug expression on the reporter's face and he leans forward in his chair.

“What else would we be here for?” Niki says in his usual undiplomatic way, and James can't help but grin.

The reporter doesn't seem fazed. “How is your marriage going?”

James stops grinning and he can see Niki two chairs to his left frown. ”Good”, he answers curtly.

“Really?” The reporter feigns surprise.

“Yes.” A moment of silence. ”So do you have another question or are you just going to repeat this one?”

“I actually wanted to show you something that might change your opinion.” The reporter raises his hand and James realizes with a sick feeling in his stomach that he is holding a bunch of photographs. He turns his head just in time to catch Niki looking at him over the head of the Ferrari team manager. He returns it with a mixture of confusion and apprehension and his fingers clench around his lighter underneath the table.

The reporter gets up and puts the photos on the table right in front of Niki. The expression on Niki's face is unreadable as he skips through them slowly, looking at each of them with detached interest. James cranes his neck to catch a look, but he's too far away to see much. Frustrated, he returns his attention to the reporter who is back on his chair, perched like a big cat before it pounces. James flicks the lighter open and closes it again.

Finally, Niki puts the last of the pictures back onto the stack and looks up. “So?” he asks.

“Would you like to reconsider your opinion on your marriage?” the reporter asks, almost stumbling over the words in his eagerness. James wants to punch him in the face.

“I don't see how this is any of your business”, Niki replies calmly, though there is an underlying tension in his voice and the set of his shoulders. James, having known Niki for some years now, can see that he is thoroughly pissed off.

The reporter clears his throat and turns to look at James, “Maybe one of the other participants wants to add something to the matter?”

“What?” James asks, thrown by the sudden attention. Inwardly, he swears. “I don't even know what's going on here.” He's trying hard not to sound defensive.

Wordlessly, Niki slides one of the photographs over the table. James notices the way the Ferrari team manager has put his hand on Niki's arm and reads the look well enough because it has been directed at him so often: Don't get into trouble.

The moment he looks at the picture, he understands why.

It's not even an overly delicate scene. No one is indecent, there’s no kissing or making out, in fact the two people in the photograph are not even touching. Where James is concerned it is definitely one of the more harmless pictures taken of him by reporters over the years. Yet there is a display of intimacy that sets it off from the numerous pictures with grid girls, models and female fans.

The brunette woman is leaning against a wall, looking up at James who is leaning over her, one arm propped against the wall next to her head. They are both smiling and their faces are only inches apart.

The whole scene is made much more delicate by the fact that the woman is Niki Lauda's wife.

James hands the photo back and wonders why Niki hasn’t punched him in the face yet. There aren’t many ways he can react to something like this.

But Niki surprises him by getting up and announcing, “This press conference is over.”

Immediately the noise level rises as chairs are pushed back, people start talking and over all that, the reporters, not satisfied by the outcome, yell their questions: “Mr. Lauda, a short statement?” “James, can you tell us what that picture shows?” “Niki, is your wife cheating on you?”

The Ferrari team manager tries to lead Niki through the chaos and away from any lurking reporters, but when they pass James, Niki grabs him by the arm. “You. With me.”

James follows obediently. The security moves the reporters outside and they manage to escape the crowd into an empty corridor, where Niki shoves him into a deserted room and locks the door behind them.

The room is little more than a storage room, with boxes standing around and a few shelves at the walls. Dust is dancing in the sunlight that is falling through a small window.

Here it comes, James thinks and braces himself on a free wall.

“You idiot!” Niki says loudly. It rings in the silence of the room.

“I’m sorry!” he says. What else can he say?

Niki has started to pace the room. “When I told you to be careful, I didn’t mean kissing Marlene at the Nürburgring on a race weekend!”

“That wasn’t a kiss!” Niki snorts and James hastily moves on, “That place was deserted, there was nobody there!”

“Obviously somebody was!” His accent gets heavier when he’s angry, James notices not for the first time, knowing that’s not what he should be focussing on.

“I’m sorry.” He sighs. “What else can I say?”

“That you’re an idiot”, Niki fumes.

“Okay, alright, I’m an idiot.” That seems to take a bit of momentum out of Niki’s anger. There’s a moment of silence. Niki is still pacing, albeit slower now. James watches as he walks tracks into the layer of dust on the floor.

“Now what?” he asks when he can’t take the silence anymore. “What do we tell the press?”

Niki stops. “You don’t talk to the press. Not a word. I need to think about this. Not a word, do you hear?” He has raised his finger like he is talking to a child.

“Yeah!” James says exasperated.

Niki nods. “Good.”

“Someone should warn Marlene before she reads it in the paper”, James mumbles.

“That someone”, Niki says pointedly, “will be you.”

Then Niki presses James against the wall and attacks his mouth with a furious kiss and no one says anything for a while.


End file.
